Pick an aspect ratio before you start editing

Aspect ratio is the shape of your video frame, written as width to height. A widescreen video is 16:9, wider than it is tall. A vertical video is 9:16, taller than it is wide. Every project in DepCut has one aspect ratio, and the sooner you choose it, the less you have to rearrange later.

Open the picker and choose a preset

Click Aspect ratio in the left panel. It sits below a divider, next to Timeline and Playhead. On a narrow screen, it opens as a sheet that slides up from the bottom. Six presets are ready to pick:

• Widescreen · 16:9, labeled for YouTube
• Vertical · 9:16, labeled for TikTok, Reels, and Shorts
• Classic · 4:3
• Cinematic · 2:1
• Square · 1:1
• Portrait · 3:4

The preview changes shape as soon as you click one. A check marks the current choice. Choose the shape for the place people will watch: the platform names beside the first two presets tell you which shape suits which feed. Titles, shapes, and stickers are positioned as a percentage of the frame, so they keep their relative place when the shape changes. Check each one against the new frame.

Enter a custom ratio

Choose Custom… to type your own width and height.

1. Click the first box and type the width. Click the second and type the height.
2. The frame follows what you type after a short pause. Press Enter to confirm.
3. Press Esc to go back to the ratio you had before you started typing.

Each side can have up to two decimals, so you can enter 1.85 and 1. DepCut reduces the pair to whole numbers, which turns 1.85:1 into 37:20. You can also type a frame size such as 1280 and 720, which reduces to 16:9. The longer side can be up to eight times the shorter side, and the fields turn red if you go past that. DepCut remembers your last custom ratio, and picking the custom entry again returns to it.

Let the first clip set the start

In a new project where you have not chosen a ratio, the first video or photo you add sets the starting frame. Landscape footage gives 16:9 and portrait footage gives 9:16. Once you choose a ratio yourself, adding footage never changes it.

Fit footage to the frame

When a clip's shape differs from the frame, select it and open Framing in the right panel.

• Fit shows the whole picture and leaves empty bars where the shapes differ.
• Fill scales the picture to cover the frame and crops whatever overflows.
• Zoom enlarges the picture further. If you have moved the picture, a Center button puts it back.

The same tab has a Layout menu, with Full, Top, Bottom, Left, Right, and PiP, for sharing the frame between two clips.

Know what undo covers

The aspect ratio is a project setting. Pressing ⌘Z reverses edits to your clips, audio, titles, and captions. The aspect ratio sits outside that history, so to go back, pick the earlier ratio from the list again.

Open the editor

Open DepCut, click Aspect ratio, and pick Vertical · 9:16 before you add your first clip.